What’s In The Smells!!

Penning down words about baking cannot express my true feelings about this activity! Nevertheless, giving it a go!

For sure it triggers a marathon trip down memory lane, bringing with it a riot of aromas, a swirl of tastes and a flood of memories and…. Nostalgia in abundance.

Considering that as I was growing up, my Mom, like most Indian Moms, was keen that her daughter should later on be competent in cooking for a family. She took it upon herself to ensure that. To her disappointment, I would do anything to escape those mundane chores of grinding and sautéing masalas and chopping veggies. I would instead be more than happy to run errands and hoodwink the kitchen .The only times I would willingly help Mom is when she took out the ladles, the large bowl, the cake mixer and that old oven which was more of a box of sorts.

The sight and smells of the soft butter mixing in with the sugar, the eggs being whipped stiff, the folding in of the flour and ultimately the heavenly aroma of the baked caramel cake or carrot cake that wafted in and around our home, filling the air, elicited a great sense of delicious comfort. Shamefully but truthfully I confess that one of the interesting part of this whole procedure was to lick up the yummilicious left over cake batter in the bowl!

Time flew by and I soon had a family to feed. Surprisingly, thanks tons to my Mom and her unrelenting efforts, I ended up being not too bad in the kitchen. However as expected, I enjoyed baking my cakes and was particularly happy when my kids enjoyed every crumb of them. When I would start baking, Amigo our four legged baby would sit at the kitchen door wagging his tail and looking at my every move with those puppy dog eyes of his, waiting to charge and lick up any batter that would hopefully fall while I was mixing. Later as the batter and tin moved into the oven he would move closer to the oven and in spite of the heat, wait there until the cake got done and he had his share. Gluttonous baby indeed but he was undoubtedly the most ardent fan of my baking.

Later in life when time permitted, I got down to trying baking breads, motivated by my husband’s desire to have home made bread for breakfast. Now that kids had flown the nest, it was only fair to give in to this. Bread was anyway always dearer to me than cake! Nothing, I repeat, nothing can beat the aroma of baking bread that permeates every corner of the house making it ‘HOME’. I have read that the most powerful triggers of nostalgia is ‘Smell’. The part of your brain that processes smells is in the emotional center of your brain. We’re just biologically hardwired for smell to evoke emotions!
So when I indulge in baking… the smell of cake or bread baking, my brain instantly feels those loving memories of Mom, my family especially my kids, Fifi our pet for 11 years, and our Amigo, enveloping me in a sense of comfortable warmth.

So needless to say, baking for me is an activity that gives me a great sense of Joy and satisfaction, making baking an emotion rather than a task .Today, my daughter-in-law, an ardent fan of my baking and my little grand munchkins are part of this emotion.